This application relates to sealed packages and more particularly to packages for storing, shipping, handling and for supporting for use, after a three-dimension shaped cover is peeled and removed from such package, a spreadable product adhering to a substantially flat base member of such package and to the method and apparatus for making such sealed packages.
The invention is particularly suited for storing, shipping, handling and supporting for use a food product such as butter, margarine, peanut butter, jelly or other spreadable products desired to be packaged in measured predetermined quantities, such as a pat, and to a method and apparatus for making such sealed packages with such a food product thereon.
At present, spreadable materials, such as butter and margarine, are packaged and are commercially available in a variety of individual service portions. In one package a preformed rectangular shape or pat of butter or margarine is placed on a base card and a flat piece of paper is placed over and stuck to the pat. The pat is covered on the top and bottom but not on the sides. The spreadable product is readily removed from the base card by the user in amounts to suit the user's requirements with a knife or spatula after the cover has been peeled off. Such package is extensively used commercially. However, the spreadable material is not fully enclosed in the package nor is the package sealed.
In another commercial package, the pat is completely wrapped in foil. This package requires the user to unwrap the foil which invariably results in the user getting some of the spreadable material on his fingers. This is messy and an annoyance. Furthermore, because the wrapping material is quite flexible, it is usually necessary to place the opened package on a flat surface such as a table and to scrape the spreadable material from the paper. The flexible wrapper does not provide a convenient base from which suitable amounts of the material can be removed for use. Moreover, such package requires about ten and one-half square inches of foil. This amount of foil is not only expensive but creates a problem of disposing of the wrap after the pat has been unwrapped. This is awkward, unsightly, and a further annoyance while dining. Furthermore, should the product such as butter or margarine become soft, as often happens, the package becomes unusable. If unopened the soft package can be misshaped and cannot be re-refrigerated for re-use.
Another commercial package used for individual service portions or pats of butter or margarine includes a tub or cuplike member of vacuum formed plastic covered with a flat cover of foil, plastic or other material. The butter or margarine is sealed in the tub. To use the butter or margarine the user must first strip the cover off of the plastic tub. Once the tub or cup has been uncovered, the butter or margarine must be scooped or scraped out of the tub with a knife or the like. This is awkward. The product in the corners of the tub cannot be readily removed and is usually wasted. In addition, the package is expensive.
In addition to the foregoing individual service portion butter and margarine packages and the apparatus for the manufacture thereof, there are in the prior art many different types of packaging machines for packing items between one or more sheets of material such as paperboard, corrugated paperboard, plastic laminates or the like. These materials are formable by vacuum, air pressure, punch pressure, compression and other known forming means.
In certain prior art devices for packaging rigid or non-compressible products, the packages are made from two members of roll stock, corrugated cardboard or the like. The roll stock members are passed through the machine by a variety of means such as conveyors, clamps, rollers, etc. The product to be packaged is positioned between the members of roll stock. The members of roll stock are bent and formed about the product. The product acts as a mandrel. The formed roll stock members are attached to each other either by various types of adhesives or by mechanical means such as rivets or staples. In general, the product being packaged is not only rigid, i.e., non-compressible, but is relatively large in size. Furthermore, the package is not used as a support for use of the packaged product nor can such a package be formed about a non-rigid spreadable product such as butter or margarine.
There is a need for a package for a spreadable product, such as butter, margarine, peanut butter, jelly and the like, in which the spreadable product is fully enclosed within the package but from which the product can be readily removed and spread. Such package must be produced from inexpensive materials and must be capable of being produced at high speed and low cost with the product packaged therein. Such package, when opened, should provide a support for the product from which amount of the product might be removed as such amounts are required, such as for spreading on bread, rolls, toast, biscuits, etc. The instant invention provides such a package and an apparatus and method for the production thereof.